Abstract: Methods and systems of protecting digital objects are described. In one embodiment, a user is presented with a degraded version of a digital object. An exemplary degraded version might be a thumbnail version of a digital image. The user can then request portions of the degraded version of the object. Before a user is allowed to experience the requested portion, it is processed to perturb the portion in a manner that is generally imperceptible to the user. The user can request multiple portions and each portion is advantageously perturbed. In one embodiment, each of the multiple requested portions are perturbed differently so that if a user attempts to assemble the individual portions, they will not fit together. Each perturbation, however, when experienced individually by a user, is generally imperceptible to the user. Rule-based methods and systems for protecting digital objects by constraining a user's browsing behavior are also described.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and systems for a receiver to autonomously allocate bandwidth among its incoming communications flows. The incoming flows are assigned priorities. When it becomes necessary to alter the allocation of bandwidth among the flows, the receiver selects one of the lower priority flows. The receiver then causes the selected flow to delay sending acknowledgements of messages received to the senders of the messages. In most modern protocols, senders are sensitive to the time it takes to receive acknowledgements of the messages they send. When the acknowledgement time increases, the sender assumes that the receiver is becoming overloaded. The sender then slows down the rate at which it sends messages to the receiver. This lowered sending rate in turn reduces the amount of bandwidth used by the flow as it comes into the receiver. This frees up bandwidth which can then be used by higher priority flows.

Abstract: A digital imaging device such as a digital camera is used to obtain multiple digital images of all of a text document segment. The text document segment could be the entire text document so that each digital image would be of the entire text document. The multiple images are obtained while lateral jittering is imparted between the digital imaging device and the text document. The lateral jittering may be in a pair of transverse (e.g., perpendicular) directions. An enhanced resolution representation of the text document is formed from the multiple laterally displaced images and de-blurred as a multi-frame reconstruction.

Abstract: The described subject matter automatically detects the boundaries of multiple objects in digital image data such as scanned image data. To accomplish this, a background color such as a scanner lid background color is detected. An edge map is generated based on a set of transitions between the determined background color and other colors that correspond to the scanned image data. A set of straight lines, or boundaries that correspond to one or more objects in the image data is determined by analyzing the generated edge map. The straight lines are assigned to respective objects based on a set of rules.